In The News

El Camino Hospital News Releases

New, Larger Cancer Center Opens in mid-March; Community Invited to Open House on March 7

Mountain View, CA - March 2, 2015 – El Camino Hospital today announced that its new, expanded Cancer Center will open in Oak Pavilion in mid-March. The $5.5 million expansion makes advanced cancer treatments and therapies available to more patients and is designed with patients and their families in mind.

Mountain View, CA - November 21, 2014 – El Camino Hospital announced today that it is the first hospital in Northern California to adopt the use of the Niveus Medical Muscle Stimulation System 110, a thermal-enhanced electrical muscle stimulation intervention implemented to prevent hospital-acquired weakness in patients. This new technology is being used in the critical care of the hospital to enhance other initiatives taken by the hospital to minimize the impact of weakness on patient recovery, including early mobility and ambulation programs and dedicated patient rehabilitation teams for the critical care unit.

Mountain View, Calif. – October 31, 2014– El Camino Hospital is the first facility in South Bay area to implant the Nanostim™ leadless pacemaker, the world’s first retrievable, non-surgical pacing technology, as part of the LEADLESS II Clinical Trial. Developed for patients with bradycardia – a heart rate that is too slow – the Nanostim device is designed to be placed directly in a patient’s heart without the visible lump, scar and insulated wires (called leads) required for conventional pacemakers.

Mountain View, CA - October 22, 2014 -The Fogarty Institute for Innovation, a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit announced that Dr. Thomas Fogarty, the nationally renowned inventor of the balloon catheter, has been awarded the Presidential National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the country's highest honor for achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology. Dr. Fogarty will receive his award during a ceremony at the White House on November 20th.

Mountain View, CA - October 6, 2014 - The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) has recognized El Camino Hospital – Mountain View, as one of 44 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals that have achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care. As a participant in ACS NSQIP, El Camino Hospital – Mountain View is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that directs patient safety and the quality of surgical care improvements.

-CoreValve® System Now Available to More U.S. Patients than any Other Transcatheter Aortic Valve-

Mountain View, CA - August 14, 2014 - El Camino Hospital became one of the first hospitals in California to adopt a new minimally invasive system to treat patients with narrowed, failing aortic heart valves who are considered to be at high risk to undergo surgery.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Medtronic CoreValve® System to treat patients with severe aortic stenosis who are at high risk for surgery based on groundbreaking research showing the transcatheter heart valve had superior survival rates at one year when compared to open-heart surgery, the current gold standard for aortic valve replacement. The CoreValve System also demonstrated low rates of procedural complications, including stroke, one of the most concerning complications of valve replacement because it can affect survival and quality of life.

El Camino Hospital Feature Stories

O.R. Director Talks About Her Hip Replacement; Shares Secrets to a Successful Surgery

After nearly three decades as an operating room nurse and manager, Mary Rivera, R.N., learned the hard way that standing on cement floors day after day takes its toll on your joints. At first the pain in her hip was manageable, but over time it grew worse.

Talking About Cancer Treatment

El Camino Hospital has profiled many of patients Dr. Shane Dormady's patients--patients who have overcome Stage IV cancers. In this interview, we ask Dr. Dormady about the current state of cancer care, the latest innovations in treatments, and how the El Camino Hospital Cancer Center works on behalf of its patients.

Know Your Family History: My Gallbladder Story

For the past year or so, I've had occasional sharp pains in my right shoulder blade (always in the same spot) and sometimes felt a bit sick to my stomach after going out to dinner. But my symptoms were always short-term and sporadic--the pain would come on at night but would always be gone in the morning, causing me to think that perhaps I had just imagined it. But in one night, I was in so much pain I went to the ER at 3 a.m. in tears. Blood work and an ultrasound revealed I had something I had not expected at all--gallstones (hard, pebble-like deposits that form inside the gallbladder).